As members of the
Common Market of the
South (Mercosur) voted
to suspend Paraguay
from participating in
the economic bloc due to
the “parliamentary coup
d’etat” that irregularly
removed President
Fernando Lugo from power
days ago, Venezuela’s
entrance was officially
approved. Venezuela
had petitioned for
membership in Mercosur
and had the approval of
all governments involved
since 2006, However,
Paraguay’s right-wing
Senate had refused
to ratify Venezuela’s
membership. With
Paraguay suspended, the
doors were opened for
Venezuela. | page 2

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

Mass support for Chavez
reelection as campaign begins

July 1 was the kick off date for Venezuela’s presidential campaigns for the upcoming October 7 elections. The incumbent candidate, President Hugo Chavez, led
a lengthy caravan through two states, and gave an energetic campaign speech
claiming victory was on the horizon. Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles
Radonski, who has already been campaigning for several months in violation of
electoral laws, led a more subdued event in South Eastern Venezuela. | page 4

Presidential employee accused
of leaking information
T/ Agencies

A

n employee of Venezuela’s
presidential palace has been
arrested and is accused of spreading conﬁdential information, prosecutors said Monday.
Dr. Ana Maria Abreu was detained under a court order last
week, the Public Ministry said

in a statement. It said the doctor
has worked in the presidential
palace for 12 years during President Hugo Chavez’s government
and had been providing medical care to storm evacuees and
other needy people.
The Public Ministry said only
that she had been “linked to the
dissemination of conﬁdential

information between the year
2010 and 2012”. But it noted
that under Venezuelan law revealing “political or military secrets concerning the security of
Venezuela” is punishable by 7-10
years in prison.
Abreu is a sister-in-law of Venezuelan anti-Chavez activist Rocio
San Miguel, who leads an organization funded by US agencies NED
and Usaid that monitors security
and defense issues.
Carlos Nieto, one of Abreu’s
lawyers, denied the accusations and said the case had been

trumped up in order to go after
San Miguel.
During the past year, numerous rumors and alleged “leaks”
from the President’s ofﬁce have
fed gossip reporters and political “paparazzi” seeking insider
information on President Hugo
Chavez’s health.
Abreu is to remain without
bail in the headquarters of the
country’s Bolivarian National Intelligence Service while her case
goes to court. Prosecutors said
she was detained in a raid on her
apartment last Friday.

Venezuela’s 1st
female admiral

On Tuesday, a total of
147 Bolivarian National
Armed Forces, or FANB,
ofﬁcers were promoted to
the ranks of general and
admiral, including the
ﬁrst woman to hold the
highest naval rank. President Hugo Chavez oversaw
the military ceremony.
Carmen Melendez de
Maniglia is the first woman to hold the rank of admiral in Venezuela’s history. “Admiral Maniglia,
first Venezuelan woman
to make the rank of admiral, that deserves a round
of applause for Venezuelan women”, Chavez said
during the ceremony at
the Bolivarian Military
University that was carried live by public television VTV.
During Chavez’s presidency, Venezuela’s armed
forces have become more
integrated and women
have risen to higher ofﬁces and ranks.
Venezuela also celebrated its 201st Independence Day on July 5 with
a grandiose civil-military
parade led by President
Chavez.

embers of the Common
Market of the South
(Mercosur)
regional
trade bloc voted last Friday to
suspend Paraguay from the
commercial and political alliance while admitting Venezuela as the organization’s newest
member.
The decision of the Mercosur
countries - Argentina, Brazil,
and Uruguay - to expel Paraguay comes in the wake of that
nation’s ouster of President Fernando Lugo in what is being referred to in Latin America as a
“parliamentary coup d’etat”.
Venezuela’s entrance into
the alliance was decided on the
same day, setting the groundwork to end, on July 31, a protracted process of obtaining
full membership that has lasted
some 6 years.
“This decision is a defeat for
North American imperialism

and the bourgeois lackeys in the
region”, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez said of the bloc’s
decision last Friday.
Per Mercosur’s regulations, a
new member country can only
enter the alliance based on the
approval of each existing member’s national congress.
Until last Friday, Venezuela
had been approved to enter the

bloc by the legislatures of all
afﬁliated states except that of
Paraguay, whose conservative, anti-Chavez parliament
had refused to admit the OPEC
member.
With the suspension of Paraguay from the organization, the
door was thus opened for Venezuela’s ofﬁcial entrance as the
alliance’s newest member.

“This is an historic day. We
have to celebrate it. A day for
the history of integration...
This is a lesson in ethics, and
a lesson in true politics for the
authoritarian enclaves that
still exist in Latin America”,
Chavez said.
Argentine President Cristina
Fernandez described the measure as an important move towards regional unity and greater economic equality.
“For the presidents that
have made this decision, it’s
a great honor but it’s also a
great responsibility because
we’re convening the entire region to participate in the need
for a greater union”, Fernandez said.
A BLOW TO THE RIGHT
Venezuela’s acceptance into
Mercosur comes as a bitter pill
for the Paraguayan congress,
which had attempted to prevent
the Chavez administration from
fostering still greater econom-

ic ties with its allies in South
America.
In a statement released by
the government of de facto
President Federico Franco,
the new administration said it
“deplored” the organization’s
willingness “to incorporate a
new member before culminating the necessary legislative
requirements”.
According to the bloc’s
members, Paraguay’s suspension carries a loss of voting
and vetoing power “and the
right to participate in Mercosur’s bodies based on the
terms of Article IV of the Ushuaia Protocol”.
The suspension, however,
carries no economic sanctions
against the impoverished nation and will be effective until
the country’s new presidential
elections are held in August
2013.
Paraguay has also been suspended from the Union of South
American Nations (Unasur) alliance for its violation of the organization’s democracy clause.
The punitive measures follow the impeachment of former
president Fernando Lugo based
on a one-day congressional
hearing that gave virtually no
opportunity for the leftist head
of state to defend himself.
Since those proceedings,
Paraguay has been marked as
a pariah state in much of Latin
America while Federico Franco
has expressed his intention to
use the opportunity to garner
stronger ties with the United
States.
“I have no doubt that behind the Paraguayan senators
and congressmen is the hand
of empire, trying to block the
construction of a true power in
South America”, Chavez stated
on Friday.
As a result of the events in
Paraguay, Venezuela has also
suspended its supply of oil to the
southern cone nation.
For Venezuela, admission to
Mercosur is seen as an important opportunity to build integration and continue to advance
its multilateral relations with
the region’s strongest economic
players.
The elimination of intercountry tariffs and a coordination of trade policies form
part of the mandate of the
regional bloc, providing Venezuela with greater access to
the markets and products of
allied nations.

NoÊ££ÈÊU Friday, July 6, 2012

The artillery of ideas

Politics | 3 |

Opposition plans fraud claim

to light of various differing
camps of thought within the
opposition alliance, Capriles
cannot risk alienating any of
them by declaring neither his
conﬁdence nor lack of conﬁdence in the electoral body and
the democratic process of the
country.
Pablo Perez, current Governor of Zulia, recently explained

why he thinks that the opposition should recognize the results in October be what they
may: “We have to be very clear
here, we have to understand
that this is an electoral process, and that the result has to
be recognized by the other side,
we can’t fall into the trap of
calling fraud in advance”.
However, last June 18
Capriles showed his lack of
conﬁdence in the CNE despite
the fact that it was the same
CNE which declared him the
winner of the governor’s elections in Miranda state in 2008.
In comments to the Miami
Herald, he stated that he had a
chance to win in October “unless the government is looking
to steal the elections through
fraud”.
Many consider the fact
that the opposition have still
not declared their intention
to adhere to the democratic
outcome in October as a sign
they are planning an alternative strategy to topple Chavez
that doesn’t include the ballot
box. Speaking from Mendoza,
Argentina, and in light of the
antidemocratic political trials in Paraguay which have
ousted the elected leader
Fernando Lugo, Venezuelan
Foreign Minister, Nicolas
Maduro, highlighted the necessity of defeating and isolating the right wing factions
who are in favor of a coup
d’état wherever they present
themselves, and for the need
to develop a process of respect
for democracy.

Taking advantage of international media gathered in
Mexico, where he took on the
role of “international election
observer”, Lopez complained
that the Chavez administration
is using the succesful advance
of the Bolivarian Revolution’s
social programs to secure “unrestricted access to the public
media”. Lopez, however, failed
to mention how private media
outlets in Venezuela, which are
the majority, cater exclusively to
the opposition’s campaign.
Though the Venezuelan opposition repeatedly accusses
President Chavez of “unfair advantage”, right-wing candidate
Capriles Radonski has been
campaigning ever since antiChavez coalition held primary
elections on February 12. Even
before then, as their candidates

crisscrossed the nation discussing their plans for a “postChavez Venezuela”, private media networks granted hours of
airtime to the opposition.
As President Chavez put it,
“though the opposition accusses
me of opportunism, they’ve been
campaigning for over a year”.
According to investigative
journalist Jose Vicente Rangel, the opposition’s ongoing
failure to state it will recognize the ofﬁcial results of the
election “is another anti-democratic position” and, according
to his own conﬁdential sources, “is the masking of a Plan
B which includes the intent to
claim fraud”.
“With the proven, sophisticated, and reliable voting system of
the CNE, fraud is absolutely impossible”, Rangel afﬁrmed.

T/ Paul Dobson
P/ Agencies

T

he presidential candidate
for the Venezuelan opposition coalition, Henrique
Capriles Radonski, made various evasive comments this week
about the lack of conﬁdence he
has in the National Electoral
Council (CNE) as an independent power that organizes the
electoral process. His comments support fears expressed
by government that he is not
planning on recognizing the ofﬁcial results of the election in
October should he lose.
Last week Capriles stated,
“the CNE has to guarantee the
electoral process is transparent, and it’s not a secret to anyone that there exists a level of
inequality in the elections”. After registering his candidature
with the same CNE earlier in
the month, he claimed to be able
to see “the reality of having all
the odds stacked on their (the
government’s) behalf; the disproportion from the institutional viewpoint”.
These
comments
come
amongst increasing, yet futile,
pressure from the government
for the opposition to publically
declare they will recognize and
respect the results of the presidential elections.
Francisco Ameliach from the
PSUV Socialist Party recently
stated that the opposition is
launching a “campaign to not
recognize the electoral institution. It’s evident that there is
a line of action to sew doubts...
They are preparing a scenario
similar to 2005 when they withdrew after creating a campaign
against the electoral body”.
The CNE operates as an
independent body and is responsible for overseeing and
organizing the logistics of all
national elections. It has overseen 14 popular votes since
Chavez came to power in 1998,
as well as numerous internal
elections, upon request, such
as those of a trade union or a
political party. Noticeably it
oversaw the defeat of the government’s constitutional reform package in 2007, as well
as opposition primary elections earlier this year.

It is considered to administer one of the most advanced
and secure electoral processes
in the world. All previous elections have been observed and
conﬁrmed as free and fair, both
by thousands of local ‘table witnesses’- representatives from
the complete spectrum of political parties in Venezuela- as
well as numerous international

observers from recognized bodies including the Carter Center,
the Organization of American States, and the European
Union.
The elusiveness of Capriles’
comments reveal some of the
divisions within his own alliance with regards to the CNE
as well as his commitment to
democracy. As evidence comes

Anti-Chavez campaign
seeks “plan B”
T/ COI

O

pposition campaign coordinator Leopoldo Lopez has issued a series of baseless claims
aimed at casting doubts on the
election results of Venezuela’s upcoming presidential elections on
October 7. Lopez, who currently
serves as Campaign Manager
for candidate Henrique Capriles
Radonski, denounced what he
called the “unfair advantage”
held by Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez Frias.
According
to
President
Chavez, recent press state-

ments by Lopez are part of
an orchestrated opposition
“Plan B” that looks to discredit Venezuela’s democratic
process. With polls predicting a sweeping victory for the
Venezuelan President, opposition desperation is said to
include “violence and claims
of fraud”.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Lopez claimed the 2012
Venezuelan election is “a David versus Goliath situation”
in which the country’s proChavez majority is “unfairly”
mobilizing millions of voters.

Mass support in the streets for ofﬁcial
launch of Chavez campaign
/ÉÊ
"
*ÉÊ*ÀiÃ`iÌ>Ê*ÀiÃÃ

H

undreds of thousands of
supporters of President
Hugo Chavez took to the
streets of cities around Venezuela last Sunday for the ofﬁcial
kick off of the head of state’s reelection campaign.
“Here we are with Chavez in
order to have independence,
a homeland and to continue
building a country of inclusion,
equality, and social justice”,
said Communication Minister
Andres Izarra during the campaign activities last weekend.
With presidential elections set
to take place on October 7 in the
South American country, the incumbent candidate continues to
a hold a considerable lead in all
major polls over his conservative rival, Capriles Radonski.
Billing himself as the “Candidate of the Homeland”, Chavez
has been drawing a stark contrast between his advocacy of
Latin American autonomy and
socialism, and that of Capriles, a
US-backed opposition politician
who participated in Venezuela’s
2002 violent coup d’etat.
According to Diosdado Cabello, First Vice President of
the United Socialist Party of
Venezuela (PSUV), the gap
between the two candidates
is large and the Chavez camp
must stave off any tendencies
towards complacency.
“The advantage of more
than 20 percentage points that
President Chavez has over the
candidate of the right must be
turned into votes by the nation’s revolutionary sectors,
avoiding triumphalism at all
costs”, said Cabello.
The PSUV leader and president of Venezuela’s National Assembly also described the candidate of his party on Sunday
as the “only guarantee for sovereignty, independence, peace,
and tranquility”.
“It’s a relationship of love that
exists between a leader and his
people”, Cabello said, outlining

the re-election activities taking
place over the weekend.
In accordance with Venezuelan law, Chavez’s presidential
electoral campaign did not begin
until July 1, despite tours and de
facto electoral activity being carried out by the opposition candidate Capriles Radonski.
Preparations for the launch of
the socialist camp began on Saturday afternoon as members of
the seven million strong PSUV
began assembling in public
squares around the nation.
Those assemblies then took
part in a caravan at 1am, beginning what the PSUV has
denominated as a “Bolivarian
Hurricane”, making reference
to Chavez’s revolutionary movement that takes it’s name from
the nation’s independence hero
Simon Bolivar.
On Sunday, Chavez led another, massive caravan that began
in the Plaza Bolivar of Mariara
in the state of Carabobo and
ended in the city of Maracay in
the state of Aragua.
Addressing the thousands
that had gathered to support
his candidacy, the two-term
incumbent called for discipline
in the campaign effort and focus from his backers.

INCLUSION & SOVEREIGNTY
“We need to dedicate ourselves
intensely in the next hundred
days and hundred nights”, he
said.
The socialist leader also referred to his presidency transcending personal gain and
manifesting itself in the diversity of the nation’s people.
“I’m not Chavez anymore.
Chavez is the people. We’re millions. Chavez is you, woman.
Chavez is you, youth. Chavez is
you, child... is you, Venezuelan
soldier. [Chavez] is you, ﬁsherman, farmers, and businesspeople”, he declared.
In addition to the large crowds
that came out to accompany the
presidential candidate, a prominent feature of Sunday’s rally
was the presence of youth and
students backing the socialist
leader in his re-election bid.
“[Chavez] supports the people
from the lower class, the real
people. Not just four or ﬁve that
have the possibility to by a car,
pay for private universities or go
abroad”, said Carmen Nunez, a
25-year old PSUV activist.
“I’m here supporting the President because he’s the best. He’s
our leader of the revolution and
with him I can study”, stated
18-year old Marcos Montalbo,
citing the series of educational
programs created by the current government.
While the social programs
have been an important part of
Chavez’s popularity, the question of independence from the
United States and the creation of
a new vision for Venezuelan society have played an important
role in the head of state’s advantage in the polls.
On Sunday, the Venezuelan
head of state made repeated
reference to the struggle of
the South American nation to
choose its own development path
free from outside interference.
“On October 7, we’re going
to knockout not only the native
bourgeoisie but also the US empire that has done and continues
to do so much damage to this
world full of war, pain, death
and suffering”, Chavez said.
“I will not rest in my job of looking for and ﬁnding ways to keep
giving to the people what belongs
to the people... to keep generating
greater levels of social justice everyday”, he exclaimed.